


In the Morning

by trubenblack



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Birthdays!, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mainly soft? just angsty memories, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 13:34:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16517462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trubenblack/pseuds/trubenblack
Summary: Happy Birthday Andrew and Aaron





	In the Morning

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed! pls leave kudos and comments they're super loved  
> follow me on tumblr @trubenblack !

Andrew had always hated birthdays. They were never good they were simply painful days to endure. As a kid he hadn’t even known he had a birthday. He only found out when he was 5. He had been in a foster home that had a camera crew coming in, so they decided the best thing to do was to celebrate the cute and tiny blond boy’s birthday. They made him a cake and everything, sang happy birthday Andrew on camera, and then sent him away to his room with no cake while the camera crew and the staff ate it. From there his birthdays only really went downhill. When he was 6 he mentioned his birthday to his foster father and had been hit with a belt for being “selfish”. At seven, he had hidden in his room and hoped to _god_ they didn’t know it was his birthday. Birthdays were never good. When he moved in with Cass, she always made a big deal of his birthday, the first one he had spent with her had been amazing, they’d made pancakes in the morning and she had made him a cake, it was his first year there and Drake hadn’t yet been able to come home and meet him. Of course in the years later, being the _birthday boy,_ had been as terrifying as it had been every year beforehand. Soon his only good birthday was spoiled in his mind as well.

 

His first birthday with Aaron had been pretty tame compared to previous years. Tilda had been alive at his point, so they had to go to a dinner at Luther’s _,_ Tilda was drunk and abusive, Aaron was twitchy and in need of a hit and Andrew couldn’t stand the idea of being touched by a single one of them. This had led to a tense meal with Andrew leaving halfway through and dragging Aaron with him. Tilda hadn’t come home until much later where she stumbled in completely drunk and had tried to lay a hand on Andrew, thinking that he was Aaron. This had at least, solidified the last part of his plan, so that was an small upside to that day.

 

In the years after, the twins hadn’t mentioned their birthdays, Nicky had tried to celebrate with them but when met with outright hostility from both of the twins, he realized it was possibly best for him if he stayed out of it, although he did somehow manage to sneak new clothes or books into their stuff when they were out of the house. When Neil found out about his birthday, he never made a big deal out of it, just sticking to a soft happy birthday and nothing more.

 

Over the years, the scars got a less painful. Andrew and Aaron learned how to be brothers in their own way, they learned how to _somewhat_ communicate, which was basically a godsend, as Nicky would put it. Andrew had also learned how to let people in, or at least one person in completely, and others to a lesser extent.  He had told Neil all his secrets, laid his scars bare, as Neil lay his own down without flinching away. Over the years, Andrew had mellowed, he wasn’t without his bad days, neither was Neil, but he had healed enough now to send a text to his brother every year on November 4thwishing him a happy birthday. Aaron always replied immediately with the same, it was a small tradition that meant a lot if he was honest with himself. They never did gifts though, neither of them ever finding happiness in birthdays in the way people who aren’t twins would. It was, in reality, the day they were separated from each other and the thing that started this whole mess in the first place.

 

He was going through these thoughts in his head rather than sleeping on the morning of his birthday at the ripe old age of 30. Who’d have thought he’d live this long, certainly not him ten years ago. He wouldn’t have seen himself sitting against the wall with a cat curled up under his hand while his husband slept across from him; he had to say he was glad that the future was different to the one he’d always imagined, or rather, never been able to imagine.

 

As if awaked by Andrew’s thoughts of him, Neil stretched like a cat, dislodging Sir, and slowly rolled over, searching for Andrew before opening his blue eyes when his hands came up empty. He eventually found Andrew in the half-light of the early morning, his eyes soft and sleepy before sharpening slowly as he truly entered the world. It was a view Andrew had seen a million times and he would happily watch a million times more.

 

“Good morning.” Neil let out, voice still rough from sleep. “I'm going to go for a run is that okay? Did you sleep at all?”

 

Andrew grunted out a response, not really feeling like talking this early and Neil huffed out a soft laugh.

 

“Try to get some sleep while I'm out okay? The cats will look after the house for us.” This was a habit they had, when Andrew or Neil were feeling unsafe, to make stupid comments about the cats. It worked today, the normalcy of the comment making Andrew’s lips quirk and the tiredness from staying up all night thinking finally pulling him under.

 

“Neil.” He groaned out before Neil could leave the room. “You forgot something.” Neil looked confused for about two seconds before he smiled and rolled his eyes before coming over and kissing Andrew softly on the cheek.

 

“Get some sleep old man.” He said and left the room leaving Andrew to finally close his eyes to the sound of the front door closing.

 

Andrew woke up later to someone sitting on the end of the bed. It was Neil, he’d clearly showered and been pottering around the house, he was holding a tray of something which, once Andrew had sat up and put on his glasses, turned out to be donuts and coffee. Andrew raised his eyebrow at Neil, both for the obvious birthday breakfast, and for the fact that he’d brought Andrew breakfast in bed. Neil shrugged without looking the slightest bit guilty.

 

“I ran past the donut store you love and I figured, hey, it’s a day off, why not let him eat diabetes in a bag.” This was a habit they had on birthdays, one of them doing soft things and hiding them with slightly rougher words, Andrew was grateful for it today, he wasn’t sure he could take this day if Neil treated him particularly abnormally. He snatched his breakfast over to himself. Neil laughed before he standing up and telling him not to spill anything on the bed.

 

When Andrew finished eating he finally dragged himself out of bed and took the tray to the kitchen. Neil was sitting on the couch watching the sports news, Andrew took a moment to thank god it was a week Neil’s names _wasn’t_ in the headlines. The calls from the PR team on those days were unbearable. He made his way over to Neil before picking up the remote to change it over to something better, Great British Bake Off maybe? Neil made an annoyed sound but only shoved Andrew’s shoulder minutely before settling back into the couch.

 

Once he’d found the right channel, Andrew slowly leaned down onto Neil’s chest. They lay like that for most of the morning until Andrew’s memories started to get the better of him again, when he twitched away from Neil, Neil stood up stretching and pulled out the car keys, dragging Andrew to the car so they could drive for as many hours as Andrew wanted to. They drove around for a few hours, the music on softly and Neil humming along sometimes before finally they made their way back to their apartment and the cats. Both of the cats squealed when they both heard the door open and raced over to beg for dinner. Andrew scoffed at them but went to open a can of food for them while Neil pulled out a phone and ordered them pizza. They sat down and watched the news highlights again, Andrew allowing Neil to, before putting in the first Lord of the Rings movie (they had watched Harry Potter recently). They sat and watched, as they ate their pizza and later Andrew ate his ice cream. They lay together until both of them were starting to fall asleep, so they turned off whatever movie they were up to and slowly went through the motions of getting ready for bed. Andrew had to admit as he climbed over Neil who had fallen face first down into his pillow with a groan to get into bed, it had been a good day.

 

Andrew had always hated birthdays but on days like today, he was glad he’d made it through them all and made it to this year and year like it. The years in which he had a family who talked fairly regularly and even visited each other, and a husband who smiled at him like that and who never failed to kiss him good morning, and two cats who weren’t _always_ pests.

 

Maybe birthdays didn’t always have to be bad.


End file.
